How Blockdaemon became a $3.3B blockchain infrastructure business

Executive overview

Most smart people said institutions would never run blockchain nodes. Konstantin Richter believed they would — and built the infrastructure before the demand was visible. Blockdaemon now runs 250,000 nodes and counts JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citibank as both investors and customers.

The company survived two crypto winters by treating survival itself as the strategy: cut costs, let people go when necessary, and outlast the market.

Conviction without external validation is the core founder skill.

The infrastructure opportunity

• No reliable tooling existed for running Ethereum nodes at institutional scale.
• If passionate crypto natives found node management unstable, banks had no path in at all.
• Richter positioned Blockdaemon as the "cell towers" layer — managing individual ledgers so institutions don't have to.
• Blockdaemon estimates it handles ~10% of global institutional node volume.
• The business model deliberately insulated from token price volatility by focusing on infrastructure, not tokens.

Holding conviction against ridicule

• In 2017–18 Richter predicted 100,000 institutional nodes by 2020; people laughed.
• Blockdaemon now runs 250,000 nodes.
• Early customers refused to engage; the market proved them wrong within three years.
• "You need to be stupid enough to hold on to an idea that most smart people will tell you is a very bad idea."

Surviving the first crypto winter

• Markets crashed within six months of founding; institutional interest evaporated.
• Two banking partners — one went bankrupt.
• Richter subsidised payroll personally when the company ran out of money.
• Strategy: maximise output, extend runway, maintain the appearance of a clear path forward.
• Founders must find resources and keep people motivated when prospects look bleak.

Surviving the second crypto winter (2022)

• Blockdaemon had raised significant capital and acquired companies to build a cohesive product suite.
• The market collapsed before the suite could be sold to institutions.
• Had to reverse course: wind down projects, right-size the team, let people go.
• The second winter felt harder — losing experienced team members compounded the operational pressure.
• Response was the same: treat it as "another Wednesday," solve the immediate problem, keep moving.

Getting institutions to trust you

• Took three years before the first institutional customers engaged.
• Key unlock: offer institutions equity and governance roles, not just a vendor relationship.
• JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs sit on Blockdaemon's board — they see inside the company and can challenge decisions.
• Ownership gave them the confidence to become customers.

Why blockchain infrastructure matters

• A polarised information environment makes uncorruptible, transparent systems a necessity, not a luxury.
• Bitcoin emerged as a direct response to the 2008 financial crisis — a transparent, accessible alternative to bank-controlled money.
• Scams exist on crypto rails, but the underlying technology is traceable and transparent at its core — more scam-resistant than most systems.
• The U.S. regulatory shift in 2025 is accelerating mainstream institutional adoption.